CaribPress » Businesshttp://www.caribpress.com
Entertainment / Sports / News / TravelThu, 21 Mar 2019 03:00:57 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1Hurrah for the State of Emergency! —Michele Rollinshttp://www.caribpress.com/hurrah-for-the-state-of-emergency-michele-rollins/
http://www.caribpress.com/hurrah-for-the-state-of-emergency-michele-rollins/#commentsThu, 24 May 2018 02:36:12 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=57537“Hurrah for the state of emergency in Montego Bay,” Rollins said in a recent interview with the Jamaica Observer at the United States Embassy in Liguanea, Kingston.

For those tourists who may be cautious about visiting the island due to the increased security presence, Rollins said “don’t be put off by it”.

She applauded Prime Minister Andrew Holness for the action, attributing his decision to take the action down to his youth.

“I applaud the prime minister for that and I attribute it to his youth,” she said.

Rollins, a former beauty pagent contestant who represented the US for the Miss World competiton, plans to continue developing Jamaica, following in the footsteps of her husband who made his first investment in Jamaica some 60 years ago.

John Rollins was a self-made millionaire from Delaware, having grown up on a farm in Georgia. He worked three jobs to raise the money for his first business, a Ford car dealership, then bought a radio station. In 1964 he and his brother, Wayne, organised the world’s first leveraged buyout, the takeover of the Orkin Exterminating Company. In all, he brought nine companies to the New York Stock Exchange.

“John Rollins fell in love with Jamaica when he came on vacation. He wanted to create 10,000 jobs — and he hs surpassed that,” Rollins told the Business Observer.

She said the Jamaican people were one of Jamaica’s greatest assets, “the people are the core”, and encouraged tourists to meet the people. It was important, she said, “to get people out of the hotels.”

One of the attractions where they can do just that is the world-famous Rose Hall Great House, a restored, 18th-century architectural masterpiece, where the haunted house tour at night “is as scary as hell’ Rollins said. Tour ideas are being further developed, with a rum-tasting tour coming up.

But the Rollins land in the Rose Hall area is also home to some 2500 hotel rooms at various luxury resorts, including the Hyatt, Jewels, Half Moon, Iberostar and Hilton, and the Montego Bay Convention Centre. upmarket shopping malls and three golf courses designed by Rick Baril, Robert von Hagge and Robert Trent Jones Sr also exist.

Future plans include expansion into greater solar power to provide energy to the various properties.

“Solar would make sense to me, as we have the land for it,’ Rollins said. “Electricity is a big cost for us.

“The two things that are vital are education and employment”, Rollins said. Her company is also involved in education, as it has provided land for a new private school which is being developed in the area.

Another area of development is affordable housing for people working in the tourist sector, Rollins said.

Rose Hall Developments Ltd has a team of more than two hundred Jamaicans, according to its website, who help to operate the Cinnamon Hill Golf Course, White Witch Golf Course, Rose Hall Great House, Cinnamon Hill Great House — home of country music legend Jonny Cash”, Rose Hall Weddings & Events, and the Rose Hall Plant Nursery. The company also provides water utility services to hotels and homes alike and continuously promotes the area for further development to fulfil the original John Rollins dream.

Baker will launch the agency’s Washington, DC, office bringing his expertise and industry relations in politics, sports and entertainment to expand the firm’s client base.

“Paxton’s diverse experience and successful track record makes him a natural addition to our leadership team as we expand into new markets,” said Tirrell D. Whitley, CEO & Founder of Liquid Soul. “His deep understanding of the creative community, plus the breadth of his relationships in politics and sports add an exciting new dimension to our firm.”

Baker joins Liquid Soul from positions as Executive Vice President & General Manager of Centric and President of BET Productions, Viacom Cable Networks. An Emmy Award-winning producer, he has had stints as executive producer and head of creative for award shows including Soul Train, Billboard Jazz and the Source Awards.

California Real Estate Accepting Cyrptocurrencies / This is not a photograph of the property

On the West Coast, we are now seeing a growing trend with home sellers accepting cyptocurrencies in exchange for payment in the real estate industry.

A few days ago, Saturday, January 27th, The Mercury News published a story with Alec Wang, a real estate investor selling his Oakland home and accepting bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies for exchange, a rarity in the Bay Area.

The article also mentioned, the nearly 400 homes listed for sale on the Bitcoin-RealEstate.com, a brokerage website specializing in the volatile digital currencies. Over sixty homes on the list are from California including the Bay Area.

When real estate broker Sean Beattie of Realty Experts was asked to sell Alec Wang’s house at 2559 Oliver Avenue for bitcoin, litecoin and other cryptocurrencies, he wasn’t sure if it could be done. Before he pursue he contacted his legal department for verification.

After given the green light by his legal team, the responses from would-be buyers have been off the charts. He said after listing the property on Friday, calls and emails have been coming in “every five minutes” from Italy, China and other part of the world.

“I’ve never had so many people calling from out of area, who have no idea where Oakland even is, except that it’s close to San Francisco,” Beattie said. “They saw ‘bitcoin’ and that’s it.”

“This is really cool,” said Angel Teinsovan, a financial consultant for Telegram Hill. She is in the market shopping for a new home, and have seen more financial markets gravitating toward cyrptocurrencies in recent years. “This is the direction a lot of foreign markets are going,” she continued.

“As high-tech as I am, I’m still old school in certain ways,” Tiensovan said.

Wang is not a new comer to buying and selling homes and office buildings. He is a licensed realty broker for 17 years in Bay Area, and is the founder and president of Tana Investment Group, a real estate investment firm. Wang has an extended West Coast real estate portfolio. He had seen the rise of bticoin and other digital currencies in the real estate industries in other countries, but hadn’t seen anyone offering to accept these cyrptocurrencies locally.

So he decided to do it here on the local scene to see how it would work out.

“I try to stay in the lead in terms of how trends are going, and I try to understand new technology,” he said. “There’s a lot to figure out, but I’m willing to be the test case,” he confessed.

It normal to see bitcoin values fluctuates, dropping and rising 30 percent in just a few hours in a day. Wang instructed it good practice to settle on a dollar amount for the price of the home and then agree with a final price at closing. The Oakland home was listed at $648,000.00.

City National Bank (CNB) has opened its doors for business in the historic Los Angeles Crenshaw district.

The bank is expanding throughout West LA, with several branches already in Beverly Hills, Pacific Palisades, Westlake Village and now in the heart of the Crenshaw district.

The CNB Crenshaw branch had a soft-opening on Monday, October 25. The official grand opening is not yet announced but will be sometime in November or December, according to branch manager, Mr. Peter Jackson.

Mr. Jackson is also the vice president at CNB and will be managing this newly open Crenshaw branch. He lives in the surrounding community and says he is looking forward to serving this underserved community.

City National is committed to the development of the Crenshaw district and is investing $75,000.00 over 3 years to the LA Parks and Recreations, towards the restoration of Leimert Park and another $300,000 over 3 years to the neighborhood STEM school coding programs, Mr. Jackson informed CaribPress.

“Restoring Leimert Park is a big deal and I’m very proud we were able to help in that area,” states Mr. Jackson.

Now customers who live or work in the surrounding communities such as Park View, Culver City, Windsor Hills, Ladera Heights and Baldwin Hills will have a closer ride to their Beverly Hills bank.

The Crenshaw district is currently undergoing a big development in the area; that being Metro’s Crenshaw Transit, Kaiser Permanente’s Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Medical Offices, a new urban, multi-level shopping center and other private construction and development in the region.

With an increase in residential habitats, CNB couldn’t have come at a better time. Providing the community of Crenshaw access to the amplitude of financial services, inclusive of wealth management, mortgages, and more.

The CNB Crenshaw Branch is located at 3739 S. Crenshaw Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90061 and opens 5 days a week Monday through Thursday from 9 am to 4 pm and Friday 9 am to 6 pm.

Commissioner Jones’ decision results in an advisory pure premium rate that is slightly below the $1.96 average rate recommended by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB) in its filing. Jones issued the advisory pure premium rate three weeks after a public hearing and careful review of the testimony and evidence submitted. His adoption is only advisory, as the commissioner has no rate authority over workers’ compensation insurers.

“The continued decreases in costs to insurers should be passed along to employers through lower rates,” said Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones. “The WCIRB has once again recommended a reduction in the advisory pure premium rate, which will ultimately benefit California’s business economy if insurers lower their pricing.”

The WCIRB’s pure premium advisory rate filing demonstrated continued decreases in costs in California’s workers’ compensation insurance market. The pure premium advisory rate reduction is based on insurers’ cost data through June 30 of this year. Insurers’ net costs in the workers’ compensation system continue to decline as a result of SB 863, SB 1160, and AB 1244 enacted by the Legislature and Governor Brown. The WCIRB notes continued favorable medical loss development including acceleration in claim settlement.

The WCIRB will evaluate workers’ compensation insurance costs again in the summer and fall of next year when it files its pure premium rate benchmark recommendation with the Department of Insurance. That filing will provide an opportunity to assess whether medical costs continue to be lower and what changes, if any, there are in other costs in the system.

MEDIA NOTES

The commissioner has the authority to regulate auto, home, and property insurance rates and has saved consumers and businesses $2.6 billion in rates by rejecting excessive rates or rate increases for those lines of insurance, but the Legislature has not given the commissioner the authority to regulate workers’ compensation rates. Workers’ compensation insurance rates are not set by the Department of Insurance. Under California law, workers’ compensation insurers set their own rates.

The purpose of the pure premium benchmark rate process is to review costs in the workers’ compensation insurance system and to confirm that rates filed by insurance companies are adequate to cover benefits for injured workers.

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/workers-compensation-insurers-advised-to-reduce-rates-to-reflect-decreasing-costs/feed/0MORE SLICES — Little Caesars expands – HWT Transport Centre restaurant to open November; two more by year-endhttp://www.caribpress.com/more-slices-little-caesars-expands-hwt-transport-centre-restaurant-to-open-november-two-more-by-year-end/
http://www.caribpress.com/more-slices-little-caesars-expands-hwt-transport-centre-restaurant-to-open-november-two-more-by-year-end/#commentsWed, 18 Oct 2017 06:07:33 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=53915Plans are now under way for the opening of a Little Caesars Hot-N-Ready pizza store in the Half-Way-Tree Transport Centre, the first of three new locations in the franchise that already has restaurants in Cross Roads and Manor Centre in Kingston, and Portmore in St Catherine.

Little Caesars Transport Centre is slated to be opened by the second week of November.

Restaurant Associates Marketing Manager Sabrina McDonald Radcliffe told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that construction is also under way for Little Caesars UWI, Mona, and Negril in Westmoreland, with expected completion by year-end.

“So we are going to be spreading the hot-n-ready magic across the island over the next year because we want to bring value and convenience to as many Jamaicans as possible,” she said.

According to McDonald Radcliffe, Little Caesars Transport Centre, which spans 1,077 square feet of space, was chosen because of its convenient location as well as the demography of individuals using the facility. It will target students, employees and commuters.

“Our brand of pizza is built on value and convenience. Value in the sense that we are the lowest-priced pizza in the market; compared to everybody else we are roughly 30 per cent of their selling prices for large pizzas. Then we have the promise of hot-n-ready, which is convenient; you don’t have to call or wait in line for a couple of our products,” McDonald Radcliffe told the Business Observer.

“The transport centre is a place for people on the go and they crave convenient foods that are filling and delicious and at prices they can afford,” she added.

Little Caesars Transport Centre will be employing approximately 15 individuals to manage the operation.

Chief Executive Officer Richard Lake hopes to open 10 Popeye’s and Little Caesars franchises across the country by year-end. Currently Restaurant Associates operates Popeye’s locations in Cross Roads, on Constant Spring Road and Manor Park in Kingston, one in Portmore, St Catherine, and another in Savanna-la-Mar, Westmoreland.

With the addition of Little Caesars UWI, Mona and Negril, the company will have six pizza franchises operational by year-end. Additional staff from the two upcoming operations are anticipated to total 50 individuals.

Lake reckons that the expansion will bring a total of 300 additionally employed Jamaicans. The CEO, however, recently called on the Government to provide private sector businesses with incentives to improve and increase the level of training for their staff as many recruits were unable to pass the proficiency tests that required at the restaurants.

The company hopes that the hot-n-ready concept of Little Caesars, in addition to co-branding it with Popeye’s at the Manor Park branch, will assist in replicating the success of the restaurant chain in its home town Michigan, United States.

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/more-slices-little-caesars-expands-hwt-transport-centre-restaurant-to-open-november-two-more-by-year-end/feed/0Little Caesars® Continues Caribbean Expansion with First Bahamas Restaurant Openinghttp://www.caribpress.com/little-caesars-continues-caribbean-expansion-with-first-bahamas-restaurant-opening/
http://www.caribpress.com/little-caesars-continues-caribbean-expansion-with-first-bahamas-restaurant-opening/#commentsWed, 18 Oct 2017 06:04:20 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=53913DETROIT–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Little Caesars® Pizza, one of the fastest growing pizza chains in America and home of the HOT-N-READY® pizza, continues its international expansion across the Caribbean, with its first restaurant opening in The Bahamas. With the latest grand opening event this weekend, this year has been met with an explosion of growth in the region including new market entries for Jamaica, Trinidad, and the Dominican Republic.

“We are excited to be a part of Little Caesars® growth in the Caribbean,” said Barrett McDonald, Managing Partner for the restaurant. “Demand for the brand has been overwhelming, and we believe the momentum will only continue.”

The grand opening festivities were held Apr. 28-29 and included celebrations with both dignitaries and families in the community. In attendance were CEO, Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation, Mr. Edison Sumner, Rector, St. Agnes Anglican Church, Rev. Fr. I. Ranfurly Brown, and President of Student Government Association, University of The Bahamas, Mr. Keyron Smith. Locals participated in games, giveaways, and face painting, along with live entertainment by Hot 91.7.

Officials from Little Caesars® shared in the positive reception. “People love the amazing value and convenience they get with Little Caesars®. And with our HOT-N-READY® platform, customers are able to get their pizzas as soon as they walk in the door!” said Mike Therrian, Director of International Development. “We’re certain Bahamians will embrace the brand for years to come.”

About Little Caesars Pizza®

Headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, Little Caesars® is the third largest pizza chain in the world* and the largest carryout-only pizza chain in the United States**. Founded in 1959 as a single, family-owned restaurant, today Little Caesars® has stores in all 50 U.S. states, as well as 20 countries and territories worldwide.

Known for its HOT-N-READY® pizza and famed Crazy Bread®, Little Caesars® has been named “Best Value in America”*** for ten years in a row. Little Caesars® products are made with quality ingredients, like fresh, never frozen, mozzarella and Muenster cheese, dough made fresh daily in the stores and sauce made from fresh-packed, vine-ripened California crushed tomatoes.

An exceptionally high-growth company with more than 57 years of experience in the $128 billion worldwide pizza industry, Little Caesars® is continually looking for franchisee candidates to join our team in markets around the world. In addition to providing the opportunity for entrepreneurial independence in a franchise system, Little Caesars® offers strong brand awareness with one of the most recognized and appealing characters in the country, Little Caesar®.

*Third largest pizza chain in the world – based on net number of stores in 2016

**Largest carry-out only pizza chain in the U.S. – based on net number of stores in 2016

***”Highest-Rated Chain – Value for the Money” based on a nationwide survey of quick-service restaurant consumers conducted by Sandelman & Associates 2007-2016

And then there’s Nigeria, which overtook Ireland as the world’s second-biggest Guinness market 10 years ago.

Cameroon is the fourth-biggest market for Guinness and the beer is also brewed in Kenya, Uganda and Namibia. Africa, with its $13 billion beer market, is the biggest source of beer sales for the owners of Guinness, the British multinational Diageo.

So how did the dark, tangy porter beer first brewed by Arthur Guinness in Dublin in 1759 come to win the hearts and minds of beer lovers on another continent?

The answer is in a secret recipe sheet kept under lock and key in the Guinness archives at St James’ Gate brewery — and CNN Travel got a look when we visited Dublin for the July episode of “In 24 Hours.”

Dated December 14, 1801, it details the unique mix of roasted, malted barley, hops, yeast and water that made up the original Guinness West Indies Porter: a beer born to travel.

“It really is one of the most precious documents that we hold,” says Archive Manager Eibhlin Colgan.

If there’s one thing about Guinness you’ll hear bandied about more than any other, it’s that the world’s most famous porter does not travel well. It’s said the black stuff tastes better in Ireland than anywhere else and, local lore has it, the best pint in Dublin’s Fair City is poured at Mulligan’s on Poolbeg Street.

But Guinness didn’t get to be the global powerhouse it is today by only catering to taste buds lucky enough to be on Eire’s soil.

When Arthur’s son, Arthur Guinness II, took the reins in 1803, the beer empire began to grow — and it followed the routes already created by the British Empire. Especially brewed to survive long sea journeys, Guinness West Indies Porter was hoppier than regular Draught Guinness — and stronger too.

In 1817, eight barrels of porter journeyed across the Atlantic to South Carolina. By 1827, Guinness was being drunk in Africa, and by 1858 it had made it all the way to New Zealand.

At this time, Ireland was still governed by Britain and Arthur Guinness — despite the patriotic associations his beer has today — was a committed unionist and opponent of Irish nationalism.

Porter itself — so called because of the dark beer’s popularity with London’s street and river porters — is actually an English invention. But it was Ireland which made porter known around the world.

The British Empire may be gone, but the Guinness empire remains. In 1962 — two years after Nigeria gained independence from the UK — Lagos became home to the first Guinness brewery outside of the United Kingdom. More breweries soon followed.

Today, Guinness is available in more than 100 countries worldwide and is brewed in almost 50.

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout is the 21st-century descendant of the original West India Porter. It’s stronger, heavier and punchier than regular Guinness, with a powerful 7.5% ABV. This is the Guinness variant you’ll most often find in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean — brewed on home turf.

In 2014, Guinness also introduced a new 6% ABV version of Guinness West Indies Porter modeled on the original 1801 recipe. It’s part of a number of innovations which have helped Irish sales go up 4% in 2016, after several years of decline.

But will they now reveal the magic mix? Not a chance.

Says Colgan, “As we’ve kept this recipe secret for over 200 years, we’re going to keep it that way.”

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/how-africa-fell-in-love-with-guinness/feed/0IT will spend more than one-third of its budget on cloud in 2017, says new reporthttp://www.caribpress.com/it-will-spend-more-than-one-third-of-its-budget-on-cloud-in-2017-says-new-report/
http://www.caribpress.com/it-will-spend-more-than-one-third-of-its-budget-on-cloud-in-2017-says-new-report/#commentsFri, 18 Nov 2016 03:39:20 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=49747Enterprise IT budgets for hosting and cloud services will rise 6% in 2017, demonstrating an increasing reliance on third party vendors for infrastructure, according to a survey from 451 Research.
The cloud is continuing its spread into the enterprise: In 2017, 34% of IT budgets will go toward hosting and cloud services, according to a new report from 451 Research. In 2016, enterprise IT spent 28% of budgets on these services.

The 6% increase demonstrates an increasing reliance on third party sources for infrastructure, application management, and security services, the report stated.
The quarterly report, Voice of the Enterprise: Hosting and Cloud Managed Services, surveyed 580 IT professionals worldwide, combined with information and interviews from a panel of 45,000 senior IT buyers and enterprise technology executives.

While it may seem as though cloud providers primarily offer infrastructure services, the report found that only 31% of IT budget spending on cloud goes toward infrastructure. Meanwhile, nearly 70% of spending is used on the following services:
• Application services (42%)
• Managed services (14%)
• Security services (9%)
• Professional services for cloud enablement (5%)

Further, a large amount of hosting and cloud services budget spending goes to unmanaged or self-managed infrastructure or application services, the report stated. “Nearly half—44% of infrastructure services spending and 49% of application services spending—is for products that are bundled with additional managed or security services,” according to a press release.

The markets for unmanaged IaaS and SaaS are dominated by large, hyper-scale vendors—but spending trends indicate that enterprises are interested in the kind of bundled services that a broader market of managed service providers can deliver, Liam Eagle, research manager at 451 Research and lead author of the report, said in the press release. “A strong opportunity exists for service providers offering a diversified set of hosting and cloud services that includes infrastructure and application hosting, as well as managed services and security services delivered around them,” Eagle said in the press release.

Enterprises are using hosting and cloud services from a variety of providers, the survey found. The most common were public cloud infrastructure providers, used by 69% of businesses, and managed hosting providers, used by 26% of businesses.

“The market for managed infrastructure and application services is a longer tail market, with greater opportunities for providers who emphasize expertise in operating, optimizing and securing the infrastructure and application products they deliver,” Eagle said in the press release. “This includes opportunities to deliver services based on reselling infrastructure and application services from the largest IaaS and SaaS vendors.”

To go along with the forecast of increased spending, cloud data center traffic is also expected to rise 262% by 2020, according to a recent Cisco study, reported by TechRepublic senior writer Teena Maddox. The expected rise is due to increased migration to cloud architectures, and the ability to scale quickly and support more workloads than traditional data, Maddox reported.

The 3 big takeaways for TechRepublic readers
1. In 2017, 34% of IT budgets will go toward hosting and cloud services, up from 28% in 2016, according to a new report from 451 Research.
2. A large amount of hosting and cloud services budget spending goes to unmanaged or self-managed infrastructure or application services.
3. Cloud data center traffic is expected to jump 262% by 2020, according to another report.

With a competitive economy, the topic of job recruiting has become increasingly important and most college graduates and job-seekers do not enjoy the benefits of job recruiting services.

The fastest-growing job industries will likely be dominated by those who study highly valued STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and job recruiting has evolved quite rapidly with the high-tech revolution of the past couple decades.

Viewers can tune in to this informative episode of “Behind The Scenes” to learn all about the job recruiting industry. The segment will explore job recruiting topics ranging from recruiter search processes to the importance of social media, the uptick in job-hopping, ever-evolving career paths and beyond.

Jones is the American actor who voiced Darth Vader in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. He’s also known for films like ‘The Great White Hope,’ ‘The Hunt for Red October’ and ‘Field of Dreams’ as well as an array of TV shows.

The program is produced independently by an award winning team, and the segment is not released by or associated with PBS.

Imagine a metropolis where, no matter where your home is, you can walk to a park in just ten minutes. And not just any park but a specially curated green space filled with playground and fitness equipment, walking trails and maybe even a soccer field or a dog park. Los Angeles County officials want to make this ideal a reality for it’s 10 million residents. The Department of Parks and Recreation set out on an ambitious mission to learn everything possible about the county’s existing parks and to lay the groundwork for improving the park to people ratio. The Parks Needs Assessment is an extensive, first of its kind examination of the existing recreational assets and park need in the County.

The sixteen month long project relied heavily on community involvement. “It’s the first time the government is actually asking people what they want instead of just doing it.” said Rita Robinson, Project Director, Parks Needs Assessment, LA County Dept. of Parks & Recreation. Through neighborhood meetings, outreach efforts and simply by asking questions, officials presented residents with opportunities to give valuable input about the parks in their neighborhood. “We had health equity workshops to help people understand the connection between health and parks because we know there is a direct connection between our physical and mental health.” Robinson said.

The Parks Needs Assessment shows that less than half of the county’s residents live within 1/2 mile of a park. With 51% of countywide residents living beyond 1/2 mile of a park, improving the park to people ratio is a priority. The Parks Needs Assessment also determined that Los Angeles County falls behind the national average in its assessment of park amenities. For example, Los Angeles County has only 10 basketball courts per 100,000 residents while the national average is 63 courts per 100,000 residents. Multipurpose fields and playgrounds are sorely in need in Los Angeles County. The Parks Needs Assessment shows there are only 5 multipurpose fields per 100,000 residents compared to a national average of 50 for the same number of residents. And at 15 playgrounds for every 100,000 residents, Los Angeles County falls way behind the national average of 45.

Improving the county’s park-to-people ratio and improving conditions at existing parks is an expensive endeavor. For the past two decades, the county’s parks have relied on local voter approved funding from the 1992 ‘Proposition A’ which was renewed in 1996. But that money is set to run out in 2019. The Parks Needs Assessment is the county’s answer to dwindling funds. The data driven analysis lays out the groundwork for making planning and funding decisions in Los Angeles County. The assessment also provides all residents of LA County with access to parks and recreation information and opportunities.

Parks are places where neighbors come together. Healthy, safe communities have thriving parks that contribute to public health and well-being, create a sense of place, increase community cohesion, improve the environment, and boost the economy.

The power of a park is witnessed on any given day at the corner of 114th Street and Motion Avenue in Los Angeles. The former location of a blighted empty lot straddling the border of rival gang territory is now a safe gathering place for families and friends.

“Watts Serenity Park brought my community together” says neighborhood activist Ronald Antwon aka “Kartoon.” “For over 50 years (that area) was a blight, a horrible sight” said Antwon who lived across the street from the lot. “We could never take pictures growing up because of that yard.”

Antwon led the fight to turn the empty lot into a park after learning that a developer wanted to buy the 1.3 acre of land to put up a multi-unit apartment building.
Knowing his community needed a public park instead, Antwon worked with the Department of Parks and Recreation to make it happen, After a tremendous effort, Watts Serenity Park had its grand opening in January 2014. “The African Americans and Latinos are now interacting together. It’s a place for unity. Blacks and Hispanics at the same baby shower, I’ve never seen that in my 50 years in the community.”
Antwon can also attest to the health benefits of having a neighborhood park. “I’ve lost 31 pounds since Watts Serenity opened.”

Los Angeles County officials want to hear from residents about the condition of their parks. Do you have a park within a ten minute walk of your home? What is the condition of the space? Is there fitness equipment available? Is there a recreation area? Are the bathrooms safe and clean? The Parks Needs Assessment aims to help local officials, park agencies, and residents understand the future steps that need to be taken to ensure all communities have adequate access to thriving parks.

For more information about the Parks Needs Assessment go to lacountyparkneeds.org

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/funds-threaten-a-path-to-more-green-spaces-in-los-angeles-county/feed/0More local produce to hit US marketshttp://www.caribpress.com/more-local-produce-to-hit-us-markets/
http://www.caribpress.com/more-local-produce-to-hit-us-markets/#commentsFri, 22 Apr 2016 03:27:00 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=46087KINGSTON, Jamaica (JIS) — Jamaica’s farmers are set to benefit from a US$29-million pilot project, which will see more local produce being sold in cities across the United States (US).

The Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS) has partnered with the US-based National Association of Christian Educators (NACE) to embark on the project, which will initially benefit 10 farmers in St. Ann for one year.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by both entities today during a ceremony to officially launch Farmers’ Month at the JAS’ head office, downtown Kingston.

Under the agreement, the farmers will be supplying three cities in the US with vegetables such as turnip greens, sweet potatoes, string beans, okra, cabbage, bell peppers, sweet peppers, carrots, cucumbers, Irish potatoes, corn, squash and onions.

The NACE has provided loan funds, which the farmers will be able to access through the local banks and credit unions.
The farmers are expected to start planting on May 1, with reaping to begin within 45 to 90 days. Export of the produce is slated to get underway in June.

The goods will be sent to Nashville, Tennessee where they will be sorted, then sent via 18-wheeler trucks to Detroit, St. Louis and Oklahoma City twice a week.

President of NACE, Dr Amos Jones, said through this partnership, Jamaica will become the “bread basket for the food deserts of the US.”

Pointing to the significance of this arrangement, Dr. Amos said it will enable more residents of inner city areas in the US to access fresh produce.

He noted that food market chains have been pulling out of these areas, leaving persons to travel long distances to purchase produce.

As such he said, the arrangement will foster “the development of agriculture and agri-business in Jamaica, and the supply of nutritional foods in the inner cities of the US.”

Dr Amos informed that in the initial phase of the project the produce will be sold through farmers’ markets at various locations.

“We will probably conclude that pilot aspect in about six months and that’s when we will expand this operation. We are going to refine the process so that there is no glitch in the process,” he noted.

Dr Amos said that after the pilot phase the business will also be opened up to more farmers across Jamaica.

For his part, President of the JAS, Norman Grant, said the project will provide ample opportunity for Jamaica’s farmers to develop a marketing culture to provide high value and top quality farm produce.

He noted that the JAS, through its central marketing system, the Jamaica Agricultural Society Commercial Enterprise Limited (JASCEL), will be contracting farmers to produce “A-grade” agricultural products for the US market.

“So, we will sell to them (US market) directly. We will be that intermediary between the farmers and NACE,” he said.

JASCEL was established in 1995 to implement and manage projects related to the commercial activities of the JAS.

“We are very excited about this transaction because the MoU is based on a spirit of co-operation and mutual benefit to both parties and the extended farming sector,” Grant said.

The JAS president added that he is pleased that NACE has secured the funds for farmers to carry out the operation for the next year.

The disclosure has come from the country’s Industry Minister Donville Inniss as he also reported that early next month, a delegation comprising government and private sector officials would be travelling to Cuba on a trade mission.

He said that with the formal re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, Barbados is among the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries seeking to further partner with Cuba in an effort to take advantage of emerging opportunities.

Inniss spoke about the plans yesterday when he received a courtesy call from Cuba’s Ambassador to Barbados, Francisco Fernandez Pena.

He said that apart from forging deeper economic relations with Cuba, the Barbados Government was also eager to engage robustly in trade, and there were a number of companies ready to do business with the Spanish-speaking nation.

Inniss also pointed out that over the years, Cuba has been committed to providing extensive technical assistance to Barbados, especially in the area of health care.

And Ambassador Pena noted that since the establishment of diplomatic relations in December 1972, Barbados and Cuba have maintained a cordial relationship characterized by cooperation and mutual respect.

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/barbados-brewery-moves-to-break-into-cuban-market/feed/0Jamaica looks to Cuba for help in agriculturehttp://www.caribpress.com/jamaica-looks-to-cuba-for-help-in-agriculture/
http://www.caribpress.com/jamaica-looks-to-cuba-for-help-in-agriculture/#commentsFri, 22 Apr 2016 03:14:12 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=46082KINGSTON, Jamaica – As part of efforts to strengthen the agricultural sector, the Jamaica government will be acquiring equipment from Cuba and relying on the expertise that country has in greenhouse technology.

Minister without portfolio in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, J.C Hutchinson, said Cuba has a wide array of agricultural equipment that “can drive agriculture” in Jamaica.

“We are looking to bring in some small processing machines to help farmers utilize crops that normally go to waste,” he explained.

Hutchinson said the watering of crops could also be made easier with technology from the Cubans: “They have irrigation systems that can help small farmers.”

He said the Cuban greenhouses are “affordable,” and with all the advancements that country has made in agriculture, “we need to look in that direction”.

The minister stressed that with the agricultural sector forming part of government’s growth platform, “technological advancement and the increased use of appropriate implements are necessary to stimulate growth and productivity”.

Hutchinson pointed out that a major target in the industry is the expansion of value-added products, which is in keeping with the goal of developing a vibrant agro-industry.

]]>http://www.caribpress.com/jamaica-looks-to-cuba-for-help-in-agriculture/feed/0Smart machines are about to run the world: Here’s how to preparehttp://www.caribpress.com/smart-machines-are-about-to-run-the-world-heres-how-to-prepare/
http://www.caribpress.com/smart-machines-are-about-to-run-the-world-heres-how-to-prepare/#commentsSat, 03 Oct 2015 22:21:56 +0000http://www.caribpress.com/?p=42474From self-driving cars to drones to smartphones, artificial intelligence is here. Here’s how to prepare for a future with smart machines at the helm.

The robots are here,” Dr. Roman V. Yampolskiy told a packed room at IdeaFestival 2015 in Louisville, KY. “You may not see them every day, but we know how to make them. We fund research to design them. We have robots who can assist us and robot soldiers who can kill us.”

Yampolskiy, director of the Cyber Security Laboratory at the University of Louisville and author of Artificial Superintelligence: a Futuristic Approach, studies the implications of AI, the interface between machines and people, and the influence they have on our workplace. AI has formally been around since in the 1950s and a lot of it—spell-check, for example—is no longer called artificial intelligence. “In your head,” Yampolskiy said, “those technologies aren’t AI. But they really are.”

But AI has seen a recent explosion—a new Barbie doll, for example, will use AI to have conversations with children—and some worry advanced technology will begin to replace humans in the workplace. In Chengdu, China, Foxconn, a company making Apple and other electronics, has just built a factory run entirely run by robots.

What is next, Yampolskiy asked rhetorically. His answer: Superintelligence, intelligence beyond human. There are projects funded at unprecedented levels, conferences devoted to this, and private companies employing the brightest people in the world to solve these problems, Yampolskiy said. “Given the funding and intelligence, it would be surprising if they don’t succeed.”

Here is Yampolskiy’s list of machine attributes to be aware of:

Superfast—These machines are not only super smart, but they’re superfast. They can predict “ultrafast extreme events,” such as stock market crashes, at a pace no human can keep up with.
Supercomplex—The intelligence that runs an airplane, for example, is made up of so many interconnected elements that the people operating them can’t fully comprehend.

Supercontrolling—Once we cede power to the machines, Yampolskiy said, “we’ve lost it. We can’t take it back.”
What kind of devices will we see that have these abilities?

Supersoldiers—The military, Yampolskiy said, will be the first to use the advanced technology, in the form of drones, robot soldiers, and more. Superviruses—We are only at the beginning of understanding how much damage can be done through computer viruses created with artificial intelligence.
Superworkers—We have been losing physical labor jobs for years due to automation. Now we’re losing intellectual jobs. “Employers love robots,” Yampolskiy said. “You don’t have to deal with sick days, vacation, sexual harassment, 401k. There’s a good chance a lot of us will be out of jobs.”

There are potential positive impacts of AI as well. Yampolskiy pointed to the possibilities of a cure for AIDS, ending hunger, stimulating new kinds of economic growth. But “we don’t need to spend much time talking about it,” Yampolskiy said. “If it’s a good thing, you don’t need to get ready for it.” He spent more time on the potential downsides.

His list of negative impacts includes losing jobs, losing human and civic rights, potentially deadly military applications. And the biggest worry? The unknown. “AI can have completely different mental capacities, desires, and common sense.

Things humans immediately understand and agree on will be very different from machines,” he said. Machines, Yampolskiy said, can behave like children in some situations. “When you take humans out of decision-making, you have a system making very important decisions with no common sense.” This, he said, could be dangerous.

“We are no longer playing science fiction, fighting terminators,” Yampolskiy said. “We are doing important research.” Here are some solutions for responding to AI:

Do nothing—This is a common, but ill-advised solution, he said. “Maybe the machines will be nice? Or maybe they will kill us.” We don’t know. Relinquish technology—Some advocate for stopping research in advanced AI altogether. Integrate with society—There’s a line of thought that humans may be able to work together with the robots. Yampolskiy is not so sure.
Apply human laws to machines—”We could punish them,” Yampolskiy said. “But they may not want to obey.”

Enhance human capabilities—Can we become competitive? Upload information to our brains like we do to computers, via advances in genetic engineering? Unlikely. Simulation argument—We could fool machines into thinking they’re living in a simulation, like a matrix or something in reverse. But some will break the rules.

In terms of researching AI, Yampolskiy cautions that we need to treat the ethical element seriously, in the same camp as other unethical research such as testing biological and chemical weapons or harming animals and children. “A certain type of software research,” Yampolskiy said, “may also be one of those things. AI may be more dangerous than nuclear weapons.” We need to design research review boards, decide on funding, and control what’s happening. “We need human ethics applied to robots. We should do the same thing we do with human cloning with advanced AI.”

Developed in the 1950’s, The Turing Test was designed to test of a machine’s ability to perform in a way that could not be differentiated from a human. “The Turing Test,” Yampolskiy said, “has been passed.”